OS X Mavericks is the third version of OS X to be sold primarily as a download through the Mac App Store. This has several advantages, the biggest of which is near-instant delivery. With just a click or two, you can download and install the software from the online store.

Like previous downloadable OS X installers, this one assumes you're ready to go. Once the download is complete, the OS X Mavericks installer app will launch.

That's all well and good for many Mac users, and very convenient too, but we like to have a physical copy of the installer, just in case we need to reinstall the operating system or want to install it on a different Mac without having to go through the whole download process again.

If you want to create a physical backup of the OS X Mavericks installer, our guide will show you how to do so.